Colin McGinn - Does Consciousness Defeat Materialism?

What would it take for consciousness to defeat materialism or physicalism? This is the worldview that only the physical is real, which is the dominant view of scientists and philosophers. Here’s what it would take: our inner awareness, our experience of what things feel like, could not be explained by physical brain alone That’s it. A tall order, though.

Colin McGinn is a British philosopher, currently Professor of Philosophy and Cooper Fellow at the University of Miami.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[keithraney]

The topological architecture of the brain & body is imperative for consciousness.

[dongshengdi]

The answer is a big YES.
It's not even a question

[gooddaysahead]

My dog is empathetic. He loves me, as I love him. He shows affection and empathy, but not just because I provide him food and shelter. He can discriminate between different types of my whistling. He understands different hand signals. He treats my handicapped wife with more empathetic behavior than he treats me (I'm his fun dad).

There are many things I can't sense, but there are percievable indicators of things I cannot "see." I cannot actually see creativity, but there are myriad indicators justifying that creativity is real. Yes, there is justification for creativity.

My dog...has consciousness. Can he paint a representational picture? No. But being able to sense moods, have moods, have a sense of humor (he tries to trick me while he furiously wags his tail), tells me that he has consciouness.

Consciousness is an adaptive characteristic that allows a creature to empathize and react to indicators of another's internal experience. This is linked to social behavior.

Can a dog have a Buddha Spirit? I say, "yes, sort of."

By the way, in which genus Homo did human consciousness begin? There's no telling. We're finding new things about Homo prehistoric art and burial sites all the time.

[woodywu]

This guy Colin McGinn says many interesting and intelligent things to ponder on. Great video, thank you Robert 🙏🏻.

[wadayatalkinbeet]

I wanted to understand what the person was like who had written a piece I came across since i'm quite skeptical on these matters but I have a feeling my understanding of the human consciousness is in good hands, what an intelligent don x

[mitrabuddhi]

Understanding Reality Through a Multi-Dimensional Lens: Exploring the Navomitto Framework

The external world is a vast and intricate tapestry, teeming with complexity and nuance. Our everyday experience, however, often feels fragmented and uncertain, prompting philosophers and scientists to seek frameworks that can help make sense of reality in a more comprehensive and comprehensible manner.

One such proposal is the Navomitto framework, an intriguing conceptual model that views reality as a continuum spanning from nothingness to existence, all contained within an all-encompassing illusion. This illusion houses infinite dimensions, each representing different concepts, properties, and relationships.

In the Navomitto framework, dimensions can be understood with varying degrees of clarity through hierarchical levels known as clarions. Higher clarions offer more differentiated perspectives within each dimension, providing greater clarity. However, this increased clarity comes at the cost of losing some of the global information available at lower clarions.

Differentiation and Clarions

The process of transitioning from lower to higher clarions is called differentiation. This involves separating the superimposed information at a lower clarion into clearer but less encompassing perspectives at a higher clarion.

Clarion zero represents nothingness, where all dimensions remain undifferentiated. Clarion one is the most uncertain state of existence, where all perspectives are superimposed, and the illusion begins to take shape.

Dimensions of Consciousness

Navomitto posits that consciousness arises from multiple dimensions within the illusion:

1. Sensory dimensions - visual, auditory, tactile, etc. These provide the raw data and subjective experiences that form the content of consciousness.

2. Cognitive dimensions - thoughts, memories, ideas, concepts. These give consciousness logical structure and meaning.

3. Emotional dimension - feelings, moods, values. These provide affective tone, motivation, and flavor to consciousness. Emotional dimension emerges at lower clarions as undifferentiated feelings of pleasantness or unpleasantness, evolving to more differentiated emotions at higher clarions.

4. Volitional dimension - desires, intentions, will. This dimension directs consciousness towards goals and motivation.

These dimensions interact and give rise to perspectives within consciousness at different clarions. The clarion of one's consciousness determines how integrated and coherent one's perspectives are. Through differentiation, consciousness can ascend to higher clarions, gaining insight but never reaching absolute clarity.

Implications and Questions

The Navomitto framework raises profound questions about the nature of nothingness and existence, illusion and reality, and the hierarchical structure of our understanding. While speculative, Navomitto offers an intriguing multi-dimensional approach for mapping reality in a comprehensive yet comprehensible manner.

By exploring the Navomitto framework, we can better understand the complexities of reality and the limitations of our own perspectives. This exploration may ultimately lead to a more profound appreciation of our world and our place within it, fostering a deeper sense of humility, wonder, and curiosity.

[BillMurey-omzw]

Looking for consciousness in the brain 🧠is like looking for the internet🌐 on your phone/device📲

[rishabhthakur]

I think,
Consciousness is the pure subject, that we trying to understand as object. And this is impossible.

[anteodedi]

Very sharp analysis from McGinn.
People often misrepresent materialism. They attack some extreme forms of it like eleminative materialism or try to narrow it down to a very specific view.
It's even more funny when you see some religiously motivated people trying to attack atheism by attacking materialism. Atheism/naturalism is compatible with different views of consciousness (including idealism).

[pazitor]

It's the *_two-way nature of the peripheral nervous system_* that associates physical sensation with mental states, yielding the _qualia, _ or sensorial richness, of being conscious. You can play back memories and reproduce some of the same sensations as originally experienced, especially emotions. This is what puts the "tingliness" to being alive. Not present when sedated.

[bretnetherton]

Awareness is the ONLY constant of ALL experience what could be more fundamental to reality than that?

[jonstewart]

Totally agree with Colin here, he's just talking sense. We are currently unable to integrate our third-person scientific explanations of brains and behaviour with our first-person direct experience of our consciousness. They seem to be totally different categories of stuff - "the tug of dualism" as Dennett would say (at least he admits there is a tug, shame his attempts to resist it fail completely in my view). It bugs me when clever people pretend they can't see this problem (Sean Carroll, I'm looking at you).

[udaykumar-lvxo]

Consciousness or awareness observed from insde to outside and materialism that is energy observed on the outside to inside are at a phase angle of 90deg..trying to find one negates the other..just like sin and cosin..
One who experience pure consicousness will tell matter is illusion..

[dineshkumarsnair]

Consciousness may be able to interpret materialism in an holistic manner different from a pure practical, physical world format.
In consciousness or a ' being with consciousness ' allow one to make Discriminating Decisions that will be different from ' time to time '/ ' places to places ' / unlike a "AI" unabled machine.. Brain or power of Neurons are VALUE ADDED by Consciousness and IT differ from person to person while the imagery of the brain may be the same..

[C.D.J.Burton]

This guy is right on the money. But I prefer the clone problem to explain it. There are many of the same building blocks (i.e. protons, electrins etc) you or I am made from all around, so if we could clone me perfectly atom-for-atom, would I be two me's - if not, what is then responsible for the me that I know I am?

Our us-ness must be tied to something which can't be counterfeited. Like a particular length of unbroken (well correlated) blockchain of memory which feedbacks on itself. The thought of merely thinking, or the remembering of remembering. Perhaps we are simply an uninterrupted oscilating area of the electromagnetic spectrum being taken on a ride with matter, and that the ride itself references the oscillation of the electromagnetic field. We are both matter and light convinced we are one single joint entity.

[Samsara_is_dukkha]

In other words, one can always be right simply by selecting definitions of processes that confirm one's starting hypotheses.

[chancerobinson]

Looking for consciousness in the brain is like lifting the hood of a car and expecting to find the driver.☮️

[KestyJoe]

I’m not fully convinced of the value of distinguishing internal experiences from external behaviors. It may be that the internal experience is simply a side effect of producing the external behavior.

[Bill..N]

Colin was interesting and did a good job with the same arguments we always hear.. With respect, not ONE of them came close to defeating materialism.. The gentleman was misinformed on a few important points, one being that the EM field itself defeats materialism.. There are various lines of real evidence to support philosophical materialism and conversely, ZERO evidence to support mystical and supernatural ideas like dualism.. Peace.

[wolfeyes]

It never seems all that clear to me what is being defined as consciousness?

Is it the state that I am aware of myself, my surroundings, thoughts and feelings?

It seems that it often means different things to different people.

What can be take away from our experience and yet still leave us being a conscious being?

We could take away feelings yet still be aware of our surroundings and thoughts.

Take away our senses such as sight, sound, touch and taste and again, we might still have internal thoughts yet without emotion, much like a robot.

It's an interesting subject to think about.

When we sleep and dream and are aware of dreaming while doing so, are we still conscious to some degree?

If we don't dream or at least remember having any, where we not conscious.

Is awareness the same as consciousness?